Friday, August 7, 2015

US combat engineers Eat a Meal atop Boxes of Ammo Stockpiled for the Impending D-Day Invasion

Unidentified American combat engineers in Stratford-upon-Avon (England) eat a meal atop boxes of ammunition stockpiled for the impending D-Day invasion, May 1944. They're probably from 406th Combat Engineers, a part of 23rd Headquarters Special Troops, a tactical deception unit that was known as "Ghost Army". The 1,100-man unit was given a unique mission within the U.S Army: to impersonate other U.S. Army units to deceive the enemy. From a few weeks after D-Day, when they landed in France, until the end of the war, they put on a "traveling road show" utilizing inflatable tanks, sound trucks, fake radio transmissions and pretence. They staged more than 20 battlefield deceptions, often operating very close to the front lines. Inspiration for the unit came from the British units who had honed the deception technique for the battle of El Alamein in late 1942. The U.S. unit had its beginnings at Camp Forrest, Tennessee, and was fully formed at Pine Camp, NY (now Fort Drum), before sailing for the United Kingdom in early May 1944. In Britain they were based near Stratford upon Avon, and troops participated in Operation Fortitude, the British-designed and led D-Day deception of a landing force designated for the Pas-de-Calais. Some troops went to Normandy two weeks after D-Day, where they simulated a fake Mulberry harbour at night with lights which attempted to draw German artillery from the real ones. After which the entire Unit assisted in tying up the German defenders of Brest by simulating a larger force than was actually encircling them. As the Allied armies moved east, so did the 23rd, and it eventually was based within Luxembourg, from where it engaged in deceptions of crossings of the Ruhr river, positions along the Maginot Line, Hürtgen Forest, and finally a major crossing of the Rhine to draw German troops away from the actual sites. Photo by Frank Scherschel